


ActionPlus

by InMoNochrome, Searece



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Gen, filler OC's, minor sticky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:09:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1357063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InMoNochrome/pseuds/InMoNochrome, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Searece/pseuds/Searece
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prowl is Chief Enforcer of Praxus, and when a string of murders suddenly occur circling around one case, it's up to Prowl to solve the mystery behind it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ActionPlus

**Author's Note:**

> Beta Reader is Searece  
> I'm also on FF.net under same name. Moving stories over here once they've been edited.
> 
> Units of Time:
> 
> Astrosecond- .498 seconds  
> Breem- 8.3 minutes  
> Cycle- 1 hour 15 minutes  
> Deca-cycle- 3 weeks  
> Groon- 1 hour  
> Joor- hour  
> Klik 1.2 minutes  
> Mega-cycle- 93 hours  
> Meta-cycle- 13 months  
> Orbital cycle- 1 day  
> Orn- 13 days  
> Stellar Cycle- 7.5 months  
> Vorn- 83 years

_Jackwire_  

Jackwire had been working on the case for the past deca-cycle and still was no closer to solving it than when he started. It wasn’t his fault there was barely any information to go off of; the mech had a clean slate and even had his own bar, though he wasn’t the one who stood in the front. He had plenty of employees to handle the outside running of the business while he focused on the paperwork and advertising side. All of the surrounding clubs and bars said good things about him too, so why the mech showed up dead from a stab wound through his spinal struts to his spark chamber, not far from his home was beyond him.

It didn’t help that acid rain had fallen not long before his frame was discovered, wiping away what potential evidence could have been found.

His chief had put him and two others on the case, but after working so long in the same cramped room they had all decided they had needed some fresh air and distance to clear their already overworking processors. So they had split up for the day to clear their heads, and that’s how Jackwire found himself in the deceased mech’s bar. Even though the mech had just passed, the bar hadn’t really taken a break except for the small funeral that was held 3 orbital-cycles after he was found. The mech’s offspring apparently had taken charge and had said he couldn’t just pay his employees to sit there, so the bar took an orbital-cycle off and then continued with business.

The bar was full and loud. The music was loud but not so loud that one couldn’t hear his friends or partners across from him. It was dark but the illuminating streaks of light along the floor helped move one around without tripping down unexpected stairs in random locations the farther one would go in. There were many performers with their own stages dancing for customers. The rule was not to touch and let them make contact first if they were interested.

Jackwire made himself comfortable at a table where he ordered a drink and just sat and watched the workings around him. Not long into his sitting, a blue Praxian with a yellow chevron sat across from him at his table followed by another mech, who he figured was just a friend of the other.

“Smokescreen, I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon,” Jackwire said with humor in his voice, smirking at the look the other sent him. “Didn’t Prowl tell you to lay low for awhile?” Jackwire spoke quietly to not be overheard by eavesdroppers.

“Yeah, yeah, but I think the smokes cleared and I’m good to be back in the daylight; it’s been long enough that no one even recognizes me,” Smokescreen replied with an airy wave.

Jackwire stared t him for a moment before responding, “It could be that you changed your paint again. I do say that the blue is better then your previous white.”

This earned a smile from the third mech while the other two just laughed about it before Smokescreen responded with “Smartaft.”

A spotlight came on, illuminating a stage where a pole stood, then the light dimmed to a light blue. Jackwire and the other two’s attention shifted to the stage when the room began to quiet as the music shifted to a new song.

A figure stepped out hidden mostly by shadow except for where the light hit their frame; he were slim and small almost like a minibot. he slowly started to sway to the sound of the music, dancing sensually to the sound. Moving towards the pole the figure began circling it, dipping every now and then using the pole as leverage. The tricks became more intricate and faster as the songs chorus came up. Spinning, flipping, falling, twisting around the pole as his tricks upped in difficulty, holding on by one servo and leg and falling then twisting into another move only held up by a leg.

The crowd of mechs and femmes were silent as they watched the performance as the song tapered off and the figure finished his performance. The music shifted again to a more upbeat song and the spell was broken.

Jackwire watched the performer slip off stage; the frame was quite exotic and he actually felt himself heating up just from watching him walk, the swing of his hips was more than likely a helping factor.

The performer suddenly stopped and looked over his shoulder towards him and gave him a beckoning look for him to follow.

Ignoring his table guests, Jackwire stood and headed after the performer at a sedate pace. Coming to a hallway he stopped; he could see the performer standing in front of an open doorway watching him before walking in. Making up his mind he followed shortly after going down the hall to the open room.

The lights were dim and he could make out the performer lying on the berth serenely. The door closed behind him and he suddenly felt at a loss for what he was doing, almost like he was in a haze up until the door closed. He tentatively stepped forward towards the berth before stopping a few feet away and just stared. The performer began to laugh softly at the other mech’s confused expression; the laugh was clearly mech and had a smooth sound to it that sent chills down Jackwire’s spinal struts.

The mech suddenly got up and walked over to him, with one servo grazing his armor as he began to circle him. And before Jackwire could ask what he was doing there was a sharp pain in the back of his neck and everything went dark.

 

\-----

 

_Prowl_

Prowl stared at the datapad in front of him. He was not happy; he had put three of his best mechs on a murder case and around a deca-cycle later they all went missing only for their frames to be delivered to the Enforcers Headquarters in caskets not long after. He was not amused at the obvious threat aimed at them. The caskets were checked for any paint scrapes left over for them but found to be perfectly spotless. The mech who delivered the caskets wasn’t even aware that their were frames in them and gladly handed over the papers with the address of the one who sent the package only for it be from Jackwire. It was a dead end once again, and the case just escalated from one murder to four.

Sighing to himself Prowl leant back in his chair still staring at the datapad on his desk before he leaned forward and dragged over more datapads that had Jackwire and his team’s leads and thoughts on the case. He’d already read over each pad and memorized every detail with his battle computer and the only conclusion he could come up with was that they didn’t want Enforcers interfering, but why kill Burnout? He was the owner of a pretty popular bar, but he had a clean slate, at least that’s what the records said.

Before he could think anymore on it his internal comm. went off and the familiar voice of Smokescreen streamed through. “Hey Prowl, I heard it’s pretty crazy at the headquarters right now; Ya mind meeting me somewhere we could talk?” Before Prowl could respond the comm. was cut and coordinates were sent to him.

Sighing again he looked down to his desk with the datapads before finally standing and leaving his office.

Walking through the headquarters; passing mechs and femmes who would stand to attention when he passed, Prowl made his way to the front entrance, glancing back at the desk clerk and declaring he’d be out before finally exiting.

 

\-----

 

_The Performer_

The frame had been removed from the room and as always he never left much of a mess behind. Honestly his latest target seemed a little odd from the rest; the spiked energon had clearly thrown him for a loop, but it was also supposed to act like an aphrodisiac yet the mech just stared at him. In the end it just made his job that much easier.

His body would be put in storage until a more appropriate time for it to be released where no one at ActionPlus could be found a suspect.

The mech let out a sigh looking down at the bars occupants; it was different with Burnout no longer being there. He may not have shown his face much to the patrons, but to him personally he was the creator he never had.

Burnout had adopted him when no one else would; as a sparkling his audials were so sensitive to sound that he was in pain whenever bots spoke around him, which in turn made him cry and scream a lot, much to the displeasure of anyone who had planned on taking him in. But Burnout was different; he took him in, even brought him to a medic to fix his condition.

He had homeschooled him and when he was finally old enough for his mechling upgrades, trained him to be the best assassin he could be. Now that felt so long ago. Burnout used to always go out of his way to see how he was doing, sometimes even bring him out to eat; he treated him as his very own creation and he missed him.

 

\-----

 

_Prowl_

The coordinates were to a café that had a number of mechs and femmes there for their lunch breaks. It was decent sized but gathered its customers from the easy atmosphere it exuded and that the energon was cheap enough for all classes to partake.

Prowl looked around before spotting the yellow chevron of Smokescreen, and walked over, taking a seat in the booth across from him. A waitress came over bringing both of them energon before walking off again. There was a long silence as the two just watched each other until finally Prowl spoke.

“So…blue?” He asked with a raised optic ridge. Smokescreen just stared at him with a look that said ‘you’re not the first to ask’.

Smokescreen cleared his vocalizer before getting down to why he had called him there. “So what’s happening at the headquarters that’s got all Enforcers twitchy?”

“You know I can’t tell you that,” Prowl responded with his ever present stoic expression.

“Don’t give me that slag! I’m your brother and you know I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t really concerned,” Smokescreen responded vehemently but making sure to avoid attracting too much attention.

Looking around the café, Prowl sighed and looked back to his brother, “There’s been an incident and now three enforcers are dead… we have not been able to find any motive other than sending us a message to not interfere.”

Smokescreen who was leaning back in his seat looked around before leaning towards Prowl, “Who were the enforcers? Do I know any of them?” Smokescreen asked; even though he was no longer an enforcer himself because of his black market dealings, he still had a lot of friends within the enforcers that he cared about.

Prowl was quiet for a bit studying the others expression before responding, “Jackwire.”

Prowl watched as Smokescreen’s optics widened before slowing sinking back into his seat, “but I just saw him a few orbital cycles ago,” he responded a little in shock now; he hadn’t seen his friend in a while before he randomly saw him at that bar.

Prowl’s doorwings that were always in a tight ‘V’ twitched at this information, “Where did you see him?”

Smokescreen looked up at Prowl before explaining his brief run-in with Jackwire, “Yeah, and I looked back and he was gone, saw him heading down a side hallway at the bar and never saw him again after that-“Smokescreen paused, staring at the center of the table. Prowl could see he was scanning his memory for any other tidbits of information that could possibly help before Smokescreen spoke up again. “My buddy said he was following the performer.” Smokescreen looked back up to meet Prowl’s optics.

Prowl raised an optic ridge, “The performer?”

“Yeah…” Smokescreen responded not knowing what else to say.

Prowl stared at him for a while longer before asking another question, “What was the name of this bar?”

\--------

Prowl read over the datapads with Burnout’s information, his bar ActionPlus was popular not only because of location and prices but because of the performers; besides dancing they also put on shows from acrobatics to singing; the performers had their own personal training and knew what they were doing. Turning on the monitor at his desk he began looking for Burnout’s file on his bar; he would have had to submit forms with his employee’s names, sometimes the boss would put more than just their names, and any side notes that may be found could potentially be useful.

The fact that Jackwire was last seen in Burnout’s bar hints that maybe the culprit was closer than they thought. Even so Prowl knew that he needed to get the names of those performers before he looked too deeply into it.

Searching through the database Prowl sent a comm. to Smokescreen informing him of his needed assistance, while at the same time finally finding the right file. Opening it a list of names and faces appeared on the screen, there were a little over 100 listed in the file. A few had some marks on their records but the marks were made at pretty young ages and had no marks since working at ActionPlus.

There was a ping to his office door before it opened and in walked Smokescreen. Prowl motioned him over to the screen he was looking at, “Can you remember what the performer looked like?”

Smokescreen walked over to look at the screen over Prowl’s shoulder as he scrolled slowly through. Glancing over all of the faces until his gaze stopped on one with prominent audio horns and a blue visor covering his optics, “Stop! That one.” Smokescreen pointed to the one he was referring.

Prowl stopped scrolling and clicked on the one that Smokescreen was pointing. The mech in the image had on a charming smile and his designation read Jazz; he was older than Smokescreen and not much younger than himself; he was adopted at a young age by Burnout.

Other than that his height, weight, and special talents were listed, nothing that would suggest foul play, but it seemed that a majority of the performers had a great range of skill sets, with acting being one of their top ones.

Prowl sighed to himself again which felt like the hundredth time in the past joor; he knew he was going to have to speak to this performer and try to not come off as an enforcer trying to get answers from him. At times like this he really hated his lack of social skills.

 

\-----

 

_Jazz_

He was getting ready for the night; frustratingly enough Swindle had him in the walls today when he had previously been scheduled for an on-stage performance just because he wouldn’t share his berth.

Jazz hated him; Swindle was Burnout’s step creation, and he was quite the flop. Jumped at the chance to take over Burnout’s bar when he passed and barely gave Jazz and the other performers time to mourn his death before putting them back to work.

It was wrong. he made them work on the day of their mourning, a sick fragger that Jazz would have liked nothing more than to kill himself, but would have to refrain.

The fact that Swindle knew about their little organization was unsettling, but the only way he would have known was from Burnout, and if Burnout trusted him enough to tell him than he would abide by that trust.

On the downside when Swindle took over he brought in some of his own mechs, and some of Jazz’s friends had unexpectedly left the bar for good. His most trusted informant was one of them causing him and most of the others to be stuck with Swindle’s mechs as their replacements.

Heaving a sigh and looking at his reflection before checking his chronometer he decided he had enough time for a quick wash.

 

\-----

 

_Prowl_

Prowl found himself standing in front of ActionPlus, the bar had just opened for the night and patrons were making their way in. His enforcer decals were covered with a bio camo so not to alert anyone of his presence.

The club was large; it contained two floors, most likely VIP for the second floor, there was even enough open air space for there to be swings for performers. On the first floor the ceilings over some of the large booths were illuminated where one could see the laid out silhouettes of other performers putting on provocative shows for the customers. On the second floor the walls illuminated where other silhouettes could be seen dancing.

Taking it all in Prowl felt quite a bit out of his depth but moved forward towards one of the bars with purpose. Thankfully it was still early so many performers could be seen just talking to each other and others getting ready for their performances while some mechs and femmes made themselves comfortable.

Catching the bartmechs attention Prowl waited as the mech made his way from the other end of the bar, “I’m looking for someone by the designation of Jazz.”

The barmech paused and gave him a good look before responding, “Any particular reason you’re looking for him?”

Without missing a beat Prowl replied with, “I’m looking for a friend of mine,” he flashed him an image capture of Jackwire before continuing, “I was informed that this Jazz was with him last.”

The barmech looked at the image capture, “I’ll contact him.” The mech turned his back to Prowl bringing his servo to his audial opening up a comm. to the aforementioned mech.

Prowl waited only for a few kliks before the barmech turned back to him and held out a card to him, “Second floor, find a table, he’ll find you,” and the mech turned back to what he was doing previously.

Prowl took the card, gave his thanks, and headed for the stairs that would lead to the second floor. A mech at the top of the stairs stopped him briefly for Prowl to flash the given card to them; the mech nodded and let him continue past. Prowl found a back table that was against one of the illuminated walls so he could see everything around him. A femme walked over to him dropping off a cube of energon before leaving to do the same at other occupied tables. The bar was slowly starting to fill as it got later.

 

\-----

 

_Jazz_

Jazz sat meticulously cleaning his armor, even though he wouldn’t be wearing it that night. His wash was quick and he still had time left over before he really needed to go out; it wasn’t like anyone missed the dancers in the walls anyway.

Setting his now clean chest armor to the side, he reached for the next piece when his comm. went off.

“What is it?” he asked, not too keen on being interrupted.

“There’s a mech here looking for you.” The other responded getting straight to the point, “Says he’s looking for a friend that was apparently with you last.” The mech sent over the image capture of Jackwire along with a capture of the mech asking.

Jazz paused for a bit, trying to think if the mech was with anyone the night he lured him to the back rooms; either way it shouldn’t be that hard to convince the mech that he left him to his own devices; after all there was no frame to be found yet.

And if this mech did turn out to be trouble he would just have to take care of him like he did the other.

“I’ll meet him,” Jazz responded working out a plan of action with himself, “Second floor,” and he cut the comm.

He had to admit the mech asking was quite handsome, this night was turning out to be quite interesting; maybe he wouldn’t be spending it all behind a wall.

 

\-----

 

_Prowl_

After watching for a bit Prowl took a sip of his energon when he heard a voice behind him. One doorwing twitched before he glanced over his shoulder at the illuminated wall directly behind him. The silhouette of one of the performers was dancing slowly to the music, when he heard the voice again, this time it clearly being directed at him.

Prowl looked around before looking back at the silhouette, “Is your designation Jazz?”

The silhouette continued their sensual dance turning their helm towards Prowl, “Ya were lookin’ for meh correct?”

Prowl stared for a moment.Was this some kind of joke? “Yes, though a proper meeting face to face was preferred. How do I know that you are the mech I’m looking for?”

The mech laughed at that, but Prowl was not amused. The other mech stopped laughing but humor could still be heard in his voice when he responded, “Ah can assure ya that Ah’m the right mech, though if ya want proof…” the other mech trailed off as his silhouette disappeared from view.

Prowl paused until he felt the air currents shift a little to his right. Looking up over to his right, Jazz stood with one servo on his hip with a grin on his face, “This proof enough?”

Prowl felt speechless staring at this mech.He’d already seen an image of his face but looking at the full mech in person was quite a different experience, possibly because the mech was armorless though not exposed and his frame could be considered quite exotic in Praxus.

Jazz approached and draped himself over the other mech, “Would ya rather take this somewhere more private?” he questioned, causing the other mech to heat up a bit and glance around before nodding his helm.

\-----------

Prowl allowed the other to lead him down a hallway into a private room, and from closer inspection it appeared to be living quarters, “Is this where you bring all potential berthmates?” he questioned with a raised optic ridge in Jazz’s direction, curious if this may be where he brought Jackwire.

The other mech made his way over to sit on the edge of his berth, Prowl opting to stand a bit off to the side, “No, Ah don’t normally bring anyone ta ma private quarters,” Jazz replied with a grin, gazing up at Prowl with his head tilted to the side.

Prowl stared almost in a trance when he suddenly shook his head and pulled out the image capture of Jackwire, “I’m trying to find this mech, and he was last seen with you,” Prowl stated watching Jazz for any reaction.

Jazz looked at the picture then back up to Prowl with a smile on his face, “Last Ah saw he was out like a light, and Ah left shortly afta. He could jus’ be on vacation or somethin’, huh?” he took that moment to stand and slowly approach Prowl, hips swaying as he went.

Prowl watched him, “I highly doubt that.” The mech started to circle him but he turned with him; he did not like others behind his doorwings and if this was the right mech it would not be good for him to leave his line of sight.

Jazz grinned at him, and there was something behind that grin that he couldn’t place, “Ya need ta loosen up mech; Ah think ya overreactin’ bout ya friend.” With that he pressed in close to Prowl backing him up towards the berth till the back of his knees hit the berth, causing him to fall back on it. With grace, Jazz put one knee onto the berth before hiking the other up and over the other side of Prowl’s body to straddle his hips and sit back onto his lap.

Prowl felt the room spin as he fell back onto the berth, “He's a colleague,” he responded breathlessly; everything felt hazy, his battle computer was trying to point out something but in his current state he couldn’t make out what it was. He could feel his frame heat up when Jazz settled on his lap and began to run his servos over his frame.

He felt like he was on autopilot and just sitting in the back seat watching as Jazz leaned over him, lying across his chest armor, stroking his helm as he brought his face down level with his own before their lips met.

Prowl’s servos suddenly shot up to grab Jazz’s hips as he ground their interface panels together roughly. Jazz parted from him for air only for Prowl to dive back forward to reconnect their lips and shove his glossa into his mouth.

Growling into the kiss Prowl suddenly flipped them both so Jazz was beneath him, scrabbling to keep up with the change of pace. His left servo was grasping the side of Jazz’s face, his thumb smoothing over his cheek arch while the other stroked and clenched at his right hip roughly.

Jazz boldly reached down and groped Prowl’s panel causing the other to moan into his mouth and grind more into his grasp.

Both separated from their heated kiss, both staring at the other in a daze, panting for air as their fans could be heard working overtime to cool their frames. Prowl looked down between them as Jazz’s hand dropped away from his panel to lie in between his own thighs. Looking back up to take in his exotic frame, Prowl’s engine gave a hard rev as the panting mech beneath him began to stroke his own frame, showing him all his hotspots.

Prowl’s panel snapped back as his spike extended causing the other mech to pause and look towards his equipment before his own engine gaze a slight rev and his own panel to retract to reveal his lubricated valve.

Prowl backed up to make room as he leant down level with the others valve, making note of the piercing on the anterior node before he gave it a long stroke of his glossa, causing the other to cry out and jerk upward. Prowl grasped onto Jazz’s thighs to keep him from bringing his legs together and continued to plunge his glossa into his heat until lubricant started to bead out thickly onto the berth below.

Looking up to make contact with the blue visor, Prowl watched as Jazz leant up on his forearms, shivering from the cool air hitting his wet equipment, and lifted his legs into the air positioning them in a wide ‘V’, smirking back at Prowl.

Prowl crawled back forward so that his face was even with Jazz’s as he thrust his hips forward, sinking into the other. Prowl watched as Jazz’s mouth fell open, and waited for the other to catch up before he began to move in and out.

Both bodies were now moving as one with Prowl grasping the back of Jazz’s helm with their lips locked as he held the other’s hips to keep in rhythm, while Jazz’s legs were wrapped around his hips with one servo draped over his right pauldron and the other sporadically clenching on his left bent leg.

Prowl, still trying to figure out how he ended up in his current situation could feel the fog lifting from his processor, and he could finally make out what his battle computer had been pointing out to him, and if what his doorwings were detecting was right then this was more than likely the mech they were looking for.

Prowl slowly removed his servo from behind the other’s helm trying not to alert him that the haze had lifted from him. He dragged his servo over to the others arm that was draped over his pauldron and slowly moved it upward until he was close to the others wrist joint when the other suddenly froze and Prowl took his chance and grabbed the wrist pulling it down to pin it next to Jazz’s helm.

Prowl quickly glanced to the wrist and the small knife held in the other’s servo before grabbing the other wrist to prevent him from pulling out any other weapons before looking into the others face which was now glaring at him. “So what was in the drink?”

Jazz didn’t answer and only continued to glare up at him.

Knowing he probably wasn’t going to get an answer he moved onto why he was originally there, “Why did you kill Jackwire?”

Prowl waited only to receive no answer again. He knew from experience that the likely chance of this mech answering any of his questions was quite low unless given an incentive to do otherwise.

Prowl began to look around hoping to spot something that would make Jazz more responsive when he looked down to realize that he was still inside the other and a very un-enforcer like idea struck him.

Shifting both of Jazz’s wrists to one servo he retrieved the knife with the other and slowly pulled out of him, repositioning himself so he was pinning Jazz’s legs open.

Jazz gasped at the sensation and jerked in the other’s grip when he suddenly felt something cold very close to his valve. Panicking he quickly looked down to see Prowl with the knife a bit too close to his sensitive equipment for his liking.

Prowl gave him a look, “Let’s start over. Now, why did you kill Jackwire? What is it you’re covering up?”

Jazz made to stay silent until Prowl raised an optic ridge before looking down at the knife and made to move forward, “N-NO! Wait!” Jazz stuttered out in a panic, visor over bright. Prowl paused waiting for the other to calm before responding, “Not covering up anything…he was guilty…” he said quietly.

Prowl’s optics brightened at this, “Guilty of what?”

Jazz was silent for a moment debating to not answer again when he saw the other’s hand twitch, “My sources said trafficking,” he rushed out with deep intakes.

Prowl narrowed his optics, “Jackwire was an innocent mech; your sources were wrong.”

“How can ya be so sure he was innocen’?” Jazz asked with a scrutinizing stare.

Prowl had watched him, obviously trying to come up with how his information could be wrong, “We worked together.”

Jazz gave him a look that said ‘are you stupid?’ before responding, “Tha’s pretta naive, he coulda easily done things in his free time when ya weren’t workn’ togetha.”

Prowl smirked down at him causing Jazz to lose some of the nerve he was slowly regaining, “To become an enforcer…” Prowl’s bio camo shimmered away revealing his Enforcer decals, “one must go through extensive background checks, and I can assure you that we weed out the bad cops ourselves.”

Jazz stared at the decals; he had just attempted to kill the Chief Enforcer of Praxus, “Jackwire was an enforcer?” he asked quietly in shock.

Prowl noted his shock and responded, “Yes and he was working on a case that involved your boss’s murder.”

Everything came to a startling halt at the words the enforcer spoke, Jazz’s visor brightened significantly and his body tensing, “…Murder…?” he muttered quietly.

Prowl was taken back by the sudden change in emotion, and came to the realization that this was not the culprit of Burnout’s murder, “Yes…we had informed his creation about-“ Prowl was cut off before he finished with Jazz surging forward breaking free from his grasp, twisting them both around so that he was now on bottom.

Jazz held onto Prowl’s hand that still held the knife and moved close to Prowl’s face, “Step creation! Swindle is not Burnout’s. An’ Swindle informed us tha Burnout passed from spark failure. Are ya telln’ meh tha tha was a lie?” Jazz’s visor was so bright it was almost white. He was furious.

Everything was made a lot clearer in that instant.This mech may have been guilty for Jackwire’s death but he was innocent in Burnout’s, and it made sense in a weird way that Swindle would be the culprit. If not Swindle himself, someone that worked for him. No one read into the step creation deal, figuring they would still be close like creator and creation. Prowl was going to find out why Burnout was murdered.

Prowl looked at the angry mech in his face, and this mech was more than likely willing to help him bring Swindle in, though he’d have to make sure he didn’t kill him before they got to the headquarters, “We have image captures if you’d like proof, along with some of the caskets you so kindly sent us.” Prowl replied blankly eyeing the other waiting for a reaction.

Jazz leant back, “Caskets?” he asked curiously, partially dreading what he was going to hear.

“Haven’t you heard? The threat that was so clearly made to all enforcers,” Prowl stated, battle computer still trying to put together all of the pieces.

“We would neva threaten enforcers!” Jazz proclaimed before suddenly clamping his mouth shut and shrinking back and away from Prowl as though he had said something wrong.

Prowl scowled trying to figure out what he meant by that statement, his battle computer stringing together more information to try and connect the dots from the new information with the known when he shut down that information thread before switching to what he’d previously decided for his plan of action. Leaning forward Prowl grabbed Jazz’s upper arm and began to pull him up and off of the berth, “You are going to lead us to Swindle.”

Prowl began to move towards the door when he stopped to look down at himself then back at Jazz and deciding that they would need to wash first. Jazz catching on; led him to the wash racks, while Prowl opened up a comm. to Ironhide.

 

\-----

 

_Jazz_

Swindle had lied to them, fragging traitor, at least now he had a reason to kill the mech. Now the only issue was getting out of his own arrest at the end of everything. There was a possibility he could slip away if Swindle made as much a show of getting arrested as he did everything else.

Jazz worked on removing the mess on his frame from their earlier activities, the enforcer chief off to his side doing the same.

He really was a handsome mech that he probably wouldn’t have minded getting to know, though that idea had been scrubbed from his processor when the other had mentioned being a colleague of his latest victim. He figured he was like the other mech, in trafficking, which brought up his other problem.

He killed an innocent mech; he never made mistakes like that, though to be truthful it wasn’t entirely his fault, only if he wasn’t the one who had to get their hands dirty.

He’d said too much earlier, why’d he have to say ‘we’? He practically just put a neon sign over the bar’s front entrance. Hopefully the enforcer wouldn’t think too much on it, though he had to admit he seemed to be on an infinite streak of bad luck.

Moving from the wash racks and then driers, both headed towards Jazz’s door to head to Swindle’s office when Prowl stopped Jazz by grabbing his shoulder.

Jazz glanced back when Prowl removed his hand to lock one end of a stasis cuff to Jazz’s wrist and the other to his own.

Jazz jerked away from the sound of the click of the cuffs before Prowl dragged him back so they could be face to face.

“To keep you from getting any ideas,” Prowl replied with a deadpan look.

Jazz snorted before pulling back away and attempted to drag Prowl to Swindle’s office before Prowl jerked him back harshly so he could walk next to him without being dragged.

 

\-----

 

_Prowl_

Bringing in Swindle was a lot simpler than he thought it would be, obviously he didn’t think that any of his employees would learn the truth and turn on him. The fact that he tried to convince Prowl to make a deal with him to let him go was so asinine that it almost cracked Prowl’s stoic expression.

Figuring out Swindle’s story was fairly simple once the mech realized he wasn’t getting out of the predicament he found himself in.

Prowl wanted to facepalm at how simple it was, even going out to question other mechs and femmes about him, just mentioning Swindle’s name they were able to garner enough information on the mech they could fill as many files as ActionPlus had employees. It was ridiculous. Learning that he was a wanted criminal for his black market dealings in several cities was also like a slap to the face. Why did no one look into him from the start? Prowl was starting to question the competence of the enforcers under his command.

Before they could do more than add serious marks to his record Ultra Magnus had shown up from Iacon to collect Swindle himself, apparently he’d been chasing the mech for a while now and was there to take him to trial in Iacon.

Prowl looked down at the datapads that had collected on his desk and with a sigh began sorting them into finished and unfinished piles before sitting down behind his desk to start on the unfinished.

The first datapad he grabbed was on Jackwire and the other two enforcers’ case. Prowl stared at it before leaning back in his chair to stare at the corner of his desk.

He thought about Jazz, he knew he was responsible for at least Jackwire’s death and he knew why he did it and that in the end it was because of misinformation intentionally given to him to keep Jackwire from continuing the case.

Prowl also knew that there was more about the bar ActionPlus than what it appeared, but before he could question Jazz anymore about it Shellshock showed up and took him away. Prowl learned later that he had released him and removed any bad marks that were added to his file.

Prowl needed to speak to Shellshock about what he thought he was doing, though was reluctant to do so. Shellshock was the Chief Enforcer before him; the mech had charisma and could lead with the best of them. The mech was getting up there in age and Prowl hadn’t spoken to him in quite some time; under the current circumstances he figured now was better than never and he wanted some answers.

\--------

Prowl stood in front of Shellshock’s residence, taking it in. Shellshock didn’t live in an apartment but a house located on the outskirts of Praxus. He still had a few neighbors, even though he was pretty far from the city.

The interesting thing were the giant Praxian crystals circling the houses and acting as property dividers; it was quite beautiful except that Praxian crystals weren’t known to grow this far out from the Helix Garden itself. A thought he would chase later, now he needed to speak to Shellshock.

Stepping forward and to the door Prowl rang the buzzer and waited for Shellshock to answer. Though instead of Shellshock answering the door it was Jazz, who visibly tensed when seeing Prowl.

Neither made a move to do more than stare at the other, each with unreadable expressions on their faces.

Prowl was about to say something when a mech popped their head out from behind a wall a little ways behind Jazz.

“Ah, Jazz don’t be rude, Prowl, come in,” the mech spoke up.

The staring contest was disbanded as soon as Shellshock spoke up. Jazz stepped to the side to let Prowl in before closing the door.

Prowl walked over towards Shellshock and sat when offered a chair and before he could speak Shellshock began.

“I’m sure you‘ve been wondering what’s been going on and why I removed Jazz here from your custody,” Shellshock started, letting

Prowl slowly nod in confirmation before continuing, “It actually started a little before I was chief-“ Shellshock paused and looked at Prowl appraisingly, “I believe you were in the academy at the time.”

Prowl just stared trying to figure out what him being in the academy at the time had to do with the case.

Shellshock came out of his musing to look at Prowl and answer his unasked question, “Since you were in the academy and still undecided about your career you didn’t really know the chief before me, which brings us to Jazz’s case,” Shellshock glanced to the entranceway to the other room where he guessed Jazz was staying for his meeting with Prowl.

“I know you read his file and that he is adopted,” Prowl nodded his helm waiting for Shellshock to continue.

“You know the mech Burnout was the adoptee, and you also know that Burnout was the bar owner but what you don’t know and wouldn’t know unless you knew him personally was that he was also the chief enforcer before me,” Shellshock waited for Prowl’s reaction on the new information.

Prowl’s battle computer quickly went to work in compiling the new information, noting that there was still a lack of information, “Why wasn’t this listed in his file?”

“We had to wipe his file once he stepped down, it wouldn’t have been good for others to know who he once was, and he had modifications done so he wouldn’t be recognized, but decided to keep his designation.”

Prowl narrowed his optics, knowing there was still more, “What was he doing after he stepped down that called for such mods?”

“He didn’t trust anyone knowing, I was the only one he told his plans to, and I’m hoping that you can be trusted with the information I’m about to tell you.”

Prowl nodded slowly.

“You can very easily ruin many lives with this so I’m hoping- no, I know you’ll do the right thing,” Shellshock met Prowl’s optics, “I’ve found you’ve become one of the best chief enforcers we’ve had in quite some time, and I’m sure you are aware of the corruption within the cities.”

Prowl’s optics dimmed, “You are referring to the black market, underground trafficking, and the like.”

Shellshock nodded, “Not only that but with the governing systems as well, though they are a bit out of our reach.” Shaking his helm as if to clear it, he looked back up to Prowl before starting again, “Burnout saw the corruption but was unable to do much about it, you know as well as I that you must have hard evidence, even if you know who’s responsible you can’t act on anything. This bothered Burnout immensely, and that is why he stepped down, if he could not do anything with the enforcers about it, he would create his own group to snuff out the corruption.”

Prowl’s optics brightened in shock, “You’re saying an enforcer, who has sworn to protect all life is the cause of all of this?”

“He was not the only enforcer, and I have to admit I gave him some information on certain bots,” Shellshock nodded slowly, “Yes, it goes against the enforcer code but there would be even more victims than there are now if it weren’t for what he did, what he created.”

Prowl nodded slowly in acceptance, understanding that yes it was true, Praxus’s crime had gone down over a short period of time and for the better; there were less innocent dying and more dealers and gang members registered as deactivated.

Optic ridges drawn together, he questioned, “What he created?”

Shellshock stared for a moment, knowing that giving out this information could be dangerous, not only for the ones involved but for Prowl as well. Glancing over he noticed Jazz had moved into the entrance of the room, leaning against the arch edge. Shellshock looked back to Prowl before sighing, “Burnout created a group that would do the city’s dirty work, they would do what the enforcers couldn’t. He was careful with gathering the bots for the group; some young that he trained himself, others experienced ex-enforcers. There was always a form of planning so that anything done would never come back to the bar that was being used as a cover.”

“He created a Black ops force?” it made sense, and if what he said was all true than they were pretty good considering nothing had come back to the bar until Jackwire, but Burnout was no longer leading them at the time, the only problem now would be if Swindle even realized what he was leading. Yes, he had them kill Jackwire, but using false information, so did he realize that they did this often or was it just an order to try and get the enforcers off his case. This logic was not very sound which seemed to be why their attention was drawn to the bar in the first place, Swindle didn’t consider all factors or scenarios.

On another line of thought, Prowl found himself agreeing with the idea of having a Black ops team, though they would need to screen the mechs again after Swindle was there. He loathed to admit it but if Jackwire and the others hadn’t been killed they never would have even suspected any foul play at the bar.

Shellshock began speaking, cutting though his train of thought, “so now that you have this information, the question is what are you going to do with it?”

Prowl noted how nervous Shellshock looked now, he could turn them all in very easily but he knew Shellshock trusted him not to, and that he actually liked the idea of an ops team, including that they would be able to help the enforcers with information gathering so it didn’t all have to be on their shoulders.

Straightening Prowl met Shellshock’s optics. “I have thought it over and have decided that having an ops team is not a bad thing, though there will need to be a rescreen after Swindle was in there, but I find keeping them where they are to be agreeable.”

Shellshock smiled as Jazz exvented, the tension that no one noticed until it left the room at the verdict. “Well now that that decision has been made, I’ll let you know that they are to leave reports for you on their targets as well as receive reports from you on potential ones. Burnout’s idea was for them to integrate into the enforcers but stay behind the scenes.”

“Why did no one inform me of this when I took the position?” Prowl now a bit puzzled but feeling that a weight had been lifted with all the information.

“I would have, but Burnout was still skeptical about how trustworthy you were, he had finally made a decision shortly before his deactivation, and I didn’t think it would be a good time to bring it up, I am sorry for that, and I must also apologize to Jazz, for you may have been spared killing an innocent mech if I had spoken up,” Shellshock lowered his head not realizing at the time how his decision would affect others. Glancing in Jazz’s direction there was no anger on his face just understanding and forgiveness.

“The only problem I’ve found is if Swindle knows or not, that could be a problem considering he’s no longer in Praxian enforcer custody,” Prowl looked to both bots.

“Burnout never told Swindle anything, he barely knew him, he didn’t become his step creation till he was a grown mech and didn’t stay around long enough for Burnout to know him,” Shellshock responded, knowing Swindle wouldn’t be a problem.

“He sure acted like he knew someth’n,” Jazz spoke up, he and the others never said anything to him, but he had acted like he knew what they did.

Shellshock and Prowl glanced over at Jazz before making optic contact with each other, “Swindle may have known that Burnout was chief enforcer at one point, considering he was seeing Swindle’s carrier when he was still with the enforcers, he may have been more wary of all of you because you worked for Burnout and possibly have contact with the enforcers,” Shellshock responded with his theory.

“An’ tha’s why he didn’ tell us tha Jackwire was an enforcer…so he was tryn’ ta cover his own tracks, bu’ how did he know we would follow through?” Jazz asked now crossing his arms and standing in the room.

“Who wouldn’t want to get rid of a trafficker?” Prowl answered his question with another, traffickers were among the ones at the top of all enforcers hit lists.

Shellshock watched as Jazz nodded his head at Prowl’s question/answer and Prowl watching Jazz in turn, “Well now that you two will be working together I think you two should better get to know one another, and I have a few errands to run anyway, so I’ll leave you two to it.”

Jazz and Prowl watched as Shellshock exited the residence before looking at each other, their first encounter coming to mind before they both quickly looked the other way.

 

\-----

 

_Jazz_

He felt uncomfortable; their interesting first encounter mixed with his short interrogation and arrest afterwards, then subsequent release. He agreed with keeping his group where they were, but did that mean they were forgiven for killing three of his enforcers?

He looked back up to face Prowl who in turn was staring back at him, he felt his faceplates flush, he couldn’t help it, the mech was very handsome and he possibly had a chance of actually getting to know him this time.

He walked over to take the seat Shellshock was previously occupying, across from Prowl, and just sat there, he had no idea how to start this.

Thankfully Prowl seemed to read him and started first, “I think we should start over. I am Prowl, chief enforcer of Praxus, and you?”

Was he clearing his slate? Jazz shook his helm to clear it before he thought too hard about it, “Jazz, performer at ActionPlus. It’s nice ta meet ya sir,” Jazz smiled sincerely; if this was his second chance he wasn’t going to miss it.

Prowl smiled at him, “You may just call me Prowl, and I’m putting you in charge of Black ops.”

Jazz startled at his response; he trusted him that much?

“Considering you know your people better than I, and you seem to garner trust from everyone you meet if my sources are right,” Prowl gave him a look, that basically said ‘I trust you, don’t break that trust.’

Jazz just stared, already feeling himself fall for the mech. He looked more into him before he came here? Smart, logical, and Jazz felt that this mech hid quite the personality under that façade.

Prowl smiled again at his expression, “I think we can cover more of your new job description and what’s expected over dinner.”

Jazz looked dumbstruck; did Prowl just ask him out?

He watched Prowl stand up and offer his servo; Jazz hesitated before looking up into Prowl’s optics before smiling, and took his servo. 

**Author's Note:**

> Pic I drew before I wrote it --> http://theparallelwall.tumblr.com/image/67703426384


End file.
